Over the past year or so there has been a significant trend of full albums showing up on YouTube. There is invariably no video content – just a still of the artist and the music. The interesting part is that there are now many classic albums on YouTube a good chunk of which aren’t available on Spotify or other streaming …

There’s some serious excitement at Brandish Towers this morning about the upcoming release of a new compilation of British 80s indie bands called Scared To Get Happy. And it seems that the compilers at Cherry Red Records must have been working some serious over time for coming in June is a five CD boxed set which features pretty much anyone …

Really sad to hear today of the death of one of the 60s most colorful pop stars – and he had some pretty serious competition too – the legendary Reg Presley of The Troggs. First up what an amazing name. He was actually born Reg Ball but changed it in honour of the great rock and roller. Which is kind …

Like most music obsessives from time to time I have wondered what it must have been like to be there at a pivotal moment in music history. You know, like avoiding the sweat dripping off the ceiling while the Fab Four hone their post-Hamburg rock and roll in The Cavern. Or watching the light show and Syd Barrett in psychedelic …

Luke Haines has quite possibly the best Twitter profile description ever. The one time Auteurs and Black Box Recorder man who recently rewrote the history of Britain in the North Sea Scrolls describes himself as being at ‘At the coalface of conceptual rock n roll.’ And mining away next to him in producing melodic pop gems with wonderfully pretentious monikers like …

And yes that cover looks great too. The images were taken by ace photographer Dean Chalkley who has lots of images of contemporary mods (and a film too – see the bottom of the page) on his site here. Anyway back to the book. There have been plenty of Mod books before, but this looks like being a fairly definitive …

On February 17th 1995 police found Richey Edwards’ Vauxhall Cavalier abandoned at the Severn View service station. They reported that there was evidence that The Manic Street Preachers’ guitarist had been living in the car. As for the car’s owner, well nothing has been heard from him since. There have been alleged sightings in Goa and Lanzarote, while there are …

It’s been five years since I last saw My Bloody Valentine live, and I’ve only just managed to recover the last fragments of earplug mined from my brain after surviving their sonic assault at Camden’s Roundhouse back in 2008. Their 2013 return to the UK sees volume levels remain the same (watching MBV is like picking a fight with a …

Following in the footsteps of Macca – who was everywhere in the summer – and The Stones who played a series of dates at the end of last year The Who have announced a run of dates. The twist is that in keeping with the ongoing trend for playing classic albums the band is going to run through their 1973 …

In case you missed it in the post Christmas and New Year comedown (and the fact that David Bowie announced his album the day after) glam popsters Suede are back with a new album in March and Brett Anderson is very excited about its potential. He told the NME “[It’s] called ‘Bloodsports’. It’s about lust, it’s about the chase, it’s …

If you liked our round up of long lost 80s and 90s indie bands than you should check out the releases from a new-ish label Optic Nerve. Based in Cumbria, Optic Nerve specialises in high quality vinyl record reissues of great indie music from the 80s and 90s. This week sees two new albums bearing its imprint in the guise …

It is quite likely that there will be a deal done in the next few days to save at least some of the nation’s HMV stores, but even if the chain does survive, the era of record shops on every British High Street has gone forever. And am I bothered? Well, the standard line ought probably to be – yes …

If you regularly trawl for CDs on Amazon you will know that a fair few from the 90s and beyond now come with a price tag of just 1p. Basically any money the retailer makes is screwing the buyer (a little) for the postage. So albums that cost 1p, they are going to rubbish right? Well not always so. When …

Aaah the tricky second album syndrome, it catches a lot of bands on the hop doesn’t it? After all you have a decade or so to piece together the tunes for your first album, while the second is often flung together in a heartbeat after months of touring. If you are smart you have saved a few great songs from …

Oh, Stephen Patrick, your Big Mouth Strikes Again. The lead singer of arguably the best band the UK has produced since The Beatles has been mouthing off again and this time has come up with some real gems. Morrissey has been talking to Loaded magazine (I am not sure why? Surely they represent a lot of things he hates) and …

One of music’s most innovative, iconic and downright brilliant performers celebrated his birthday this week, and nope it isn’t that guy who decided to come out of retirement yesterday, it is the man who was a massive influence on him – Scott Walker. Brandish already boasts one frothing at the mouth acclamation of the man’s genius here so in order …

Simon Poulter edits What Would David Bowie Do, so he seemed the right person to have the last word on what has been a momentous day for fans of the Dame. So the Dame is back, back, BACK. Unexpected and brilliantly unannounced. On his 66th birthday (a date he appropriately shares with Elvis Presley), out of seemingly nowhere, David Bowie …

Personally I think it was all downhill for David Bowie after his 1966 mod-pop masterpiece Can’t Help Thinking About Me, but I do know that a few people rate Hunky Dory, Ziggy and that weird one with the New Romantics on it, and it is his birthday so I won’t moan about his later output. Instead but put your prejudices …

Ziggy Stardust. The Thin White Duke. David Robert Jones. Whatever you call him, David Bowie, the chameleon of pop, is back! Celebrating today his 66th birthday, the enigmatic icon marked the occasion with the release of a new single ‘Where Are We Now’ and news of a new album called ‘The Next Day’ touching down in March. You can listen …

It is difficult to contain my excitement this morning. Just as I had (along with most other people) assumed Bowie was enjoying retirement counting his royalties from last summer’s playing of Heroes, up he pops with a new single and an album promised. Called Where Are We Now, and produced by Tony Visconti, the new single sounds quite melancholy – …